Q.According to the system of Jain sadhana, the fundamental
objective is the development of veetaragta or the achievement of equanimity. The
question arises as to how one may achieve equanimity in life?

Ans. The nature of Jain religion is tranquillity-equanimity. The means of
achieving it is the purification of leshya. Until leshya is freed from
defilement, equanimity is not possible. The achievement of equanimity is the
goal of every sadhak. From the point of view of sadhana, it may be recognised as
essential. The birth of equanimity in the life of an individual is always for
his good. Inner happiness is possible only through it. However, there can be no
development of equanimity in the absence of purification of leshya or feelings.
Therefore, a sadhak must concentrate all his attention on the purification of
feelings.

Q.The essence of equanimity is to keep calm both in favourable and unfavourable
circumstances, and not to be affected by emotional outbursts. According to
medical science, the specific sensory glands are a factor in the creation of
emotional excitements. If these centres are removed through operation, all
provocability ends. If a little surgery can bring about equanimity, why need one
undertake a long course of meditation for it?

Ans. To remain unaffected by contradictory extremes--pleasure and pain, profit
and loss, honour and dishonour, praise and dispraise, and life and death, is
possible only under two conditions: (1) dissolution of attachment, and (2) the
extraction of the specific sensory centres through a surgical operation. The
resultants of these two activities appear to be similar, but, as a matter of
fact, there is a vast difference between the two. The removal of the sensory
centres does lessen excitement, but it does not, cannot, lead to the development
of equanimity, or constructive feelings. Drug-treatment or surgery may help
reduce a man's excitability, but the process of development or any progress can
take place only on the conscious level. The change brought by a surgical
operation is not permanent, and it is also fraught with the risk of causing an
irreparable harm to the human organism.

All the parts of the body are balanced in a state of equilibrium and have their
utility. Any harm caused to any one part is liable to affect the entire
organism. The removal of a single healthy sinew of the body may result in the
deformation or perversion of a limb. Therefore, instead of removing particular
centres through surgery, it is far more profitable to bring about a chemical
change in them. By effecting a change in feelings, such a chemical change takes
place of itself. In this process, there is a spontaneous development of
independent consciousness. By anaesthetising consciousness, anger does come to
an end, but this is not the way of progress. All this only serves to underline
the fact, that the effect of removing the sensory centres through a surgical
operation, and that of bringing about a change in the endocrine secretions
through the transformation of feelings, are radically different. To neutralise
negative feeling is one thing but to create a positive, constructive outlook is
something quite different. The joy of a constructive outlook is possible only
through the development of equanimity, not by severing a centre.

The sages have termed equanimity arising from the development of consciousness,
as the Law of Life and of great utility. Action influenced by equanimity is the
greatest provision in the life of a sadhak. From this angle, the practice of
equanimity is very necessary.

Q.It has been said in the Neetivakyamrit that of all behaviours, equanimity is
the best. Why is equanimity the best? Why most useful?

Ans. A man longs for happiness. That conduct which brings happiness is the best.
The happiness referred to here is inner joy, not sensuous pleasure. Inner joy is
independent of all means. Pleasure dependent on material objects is ever
attended by pain. Only absolute or inner joy is free from pain. Such joy
manifests itself in a state of equanimity. Equanimity creates a state of
consciousness from which sprout the fountains of joy, in which the glands are
activated and chemical changes take place. No outside circumstances can
adversely affect this joy.

Ans. That Sangam inflicted great tortures upon Lord Mahavir, is true. But all
his actions failed to disturb Lord Mahavir's inner peace. He did not even
experience any physical pain, it seems. Because unbearable pain often makes a
man unconscious, but Lord Mahavir bore all his travails very consciously. Which
means that Lord Mahavir's consciousness was not affected by pain, rather his
painful situation itself was quite overwhelmed by the fountains of inner joy
which sprouted within him.

Q.A rare individual, instead of being overwhelmed by pain, can quite overpower
the circumstances of pain themselves. Does it happen through spiritual power, or
is there a scientific reason for it, too?

Ans. Such a thing does not occur without a cause. The scientific reason for it
is quite clear. Each physical body has its unique organisation, which is
regulated by a chemical called melatonin. The function of that chemical is to
take the organism into samadhi or unconsciousness. In the absence of a situation
requiring endurance of pain, a person straightaway goes into unconsciousness.
Whether it is Lord Mahavir or somebody else, if not supported by equanimity in
fatal pain, he cannot remain fully conscious. The joy of equanimity is so strong
that one does not experience any sensation of pain whatsoever. That is why it
has been said that equanimity is the Law of Life. It is of great utility and an
infallible support.

To have no sensation of pain, even when pain is inflicted upon one, appears to
be strange, yet it is true. A material witness of this is the technique of
acupuncture. Through acupuncture, the pain-carrying nerves are inactivated, with
the result that the sensation of pain never reaches the brain. With the growth
of equanimity, too, the pain-conveying tendrils are inactivated, so one does not
experience pain.

Q.What is the philosophical basis of equanimity? Is it an element imposed from
outside, or a spontaneous state of mind?

Ans. Equanimity cannot be imposed. It is the fundamental nature of the soul.
From the point of view of consciousness all souls are equal. All have an equal
capacity for development. This is the philosophical basis of equanimity. All the
inequalities found in human society, all conceptions based upon untouchability,
sex, etc. are man-created, not natural. Material inequalities are also
imaginative impositions. From the point of view of utility or convenience, the
caste, regional and national frontiers are all artificial and unnatural. Devoid
of intellectual or utilitarian divisions, the whole of mankind is one,
indivisible, each human being endowed with the same existential capacity. There
should be no imposition of inequality there.